


My Peony

by walkonmmrs



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: EXO - Freeform, M/M, baeksoo - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-05-25 09:27:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14974226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/walkonmmrs/pseuds/walkonmmrs
Summary: Mr. Do entered the flower shop with a yellow crumpled paper, but left with two very valuable things: Baekhyun’s phone number, along with his heart.





	My Peony

     Business was slow as usual. As the trees outside turned from their lively green to a soft auburn, more and more people were less interested in the shop’s contents. There was the occasional wedding planner or hopeless romantic that would stumble in, but they almost never ended up buying anything to Baekhyun’s annoyance. While the trees and bushes outside the building were browning, the inside of the small corner shop was breathtaking. The pastel Carnations danced delicately with the deep blue Hydrangeas, the feathery Astilbes mingled with the fiery snapdragons, and the Marigolds found a place cozied with the droopy Bluebells. Strings of Hollyhocks paraded up and down the door like an entrance to some sort of elven kingdom or fairy garden. Although all of the flowers blended so well together, one stood out the most to him. The Peony.

 

His attention was abruptly stolen from the gardening magazine on the counter when he heard the bell ring and felt the cool breeze come in from outside. His gaze shifted too see a young man around his age, adorned it tattoos and piercings. His deep black hair was slightly messed up, and he was clutching onto a crumbled yellow paper.

 

“Hello, welcome!” he began, offering a small smile, “how may I help you?” The man shyly smiled in return. His eyes failed to meet Baekhyun’s however, as they were already occupied studying the bright plethora of colors being displayed. His soft, heart shaped lips seemed ready to speak, but his mind did not follow. After parting his lips for what seemed like ages, he began to talk.

 

“I’m here for some peonies,” he started, “I didn’t know where to look because almost every place that sells flowers is closed this time of year.”

 

His low, monotone voice contrasted his somewhat fragile looks. Although a metal ring or rod was placed in every place possible, his round face looked extremely frail. Gentle, almost. Baekhyun perked up after hearing the name of the plant.

“Ah, yes! Very excellent choice, Mr...” he trailed off, signaling the man to fill in the blank. While he could’ve gone with a “Sir” to save from getting personal, he was inclined to ask the man’s name.His very appearance sparked an inquisitive flame inside Baekhyun’s mind. The other man’s eyes opened in shock, and his plump lips hesitated to answer.

 

“Do.”

 

That was all he got out of the man with the raven hair. He was slightly disappointed with his lack of enthusiasm, but if there was anything Byun Baekhyun was not, it was a quitter. He would get to know this man whether he liked it or not.

 

“So, Mr. Do,” he began, “who are these lovely peonies for?” The florist walked out behind the counter, putting on a pair of gloves and grabbing a pair of sharp kitchen scissors. When the question posed was finally registered by the other man, he could swear he saw something like a switch go off in his head. A small smile formed on his face, and his previously grim look was replaced with a soft glow.

 

“Ah! They’re for my daughter. Today is her sixth birthday and i promised to throw her a princess party,” he pulled out his phone, his jagged finger nails swiping through the apps to pull up some pictures

 

Within the span of a couple seconds, he had pulled his phone out and was showing Baekhyun pictures of a six year old with the same doe eyes and thick lips as the man who seemed so proud of her. Her skin was a light bronze, and her blunt bangs were an obvious sign that she had played hair stylist once or twice.

 

The florist didn’t want to be rude, so he looked at the photos and offered a small smile.

 

“She’s beautiful!”

 

Mr. Do smiled.

 

“Thank you,” he silently let out, his voice sounding softer the more he spoke.

 

Baekhyun didn’t necessarily like kids. It was the fact that they were so destructive that turned him off so much. He was normally a person that preferred to care and maintain life, but the thought of a little toddler running around and pulling the petals off freshly bloomed roses made him very uninterested in caring for another human life. The tattooed man continued rambling however, and the light in his eyes made Baekhyun think twice about not wanting kids.

 

“Here was her first dance recital,” he spoke, turning the phone towards the florist.

 

Baekhyun studied it carefully. He saw the man, but this time his raven hair was a fiery red. Standing to the right of his kneeling body was the little girl, a large grin spreading from ear to ear displaying the gap where her two front teeth should be. There was another person in the photo, however. A young woman with the same nose and sun-kissed skin as the young child. Her smile was dazzling, but something about it didn’t seem authentic.

 

“I’m guessing that’s the Mrs..?” he trailed off. He was worried that it sounded rude, so he braced himself for how the other would react.

 

Mr. Do stopped rambling. His face slowly sank, not as if he was sad, but as if he was slightly annoyed.

 

“Ex-Mrs. We’re no longer together.”

 

“Oh! I’m sorry for assuming,” Baekhyun quickly apologized. He felt bad that he had taken the light out of the man’s eyes, because watching him talk was more intriguing than anything he had ever seen before.

 

“It’s alright,” Mr. Do muttered. “Things happen, ya know?”

 

To avoid making things more awkward, Baekhyun walked over to the peonies, and asked what color the man preferred. Although they normally came in a shade of dark pink, Mr. Do had chosen a lighter version of the latter. It was a shade similar to that of someone’s cheeks during the middle of winter, which stood out from the others surrounding it.

 

His hand extended to point at the flowering plant, causing his sleeve to fall back. Baekhyun’s eyes darted towards the forearm of his tattooed customer. Although most was covered, he could clearly spot some sort of flower stem, surrounded by petals similar to the shade of pink he desired. It contrasted the other works surrounding it. It was drawn with incredible precision, and while every other tattoo laid flat and uninteresting there was clearly a story surrounding the large flowering plant that rested upon his arm.

 

“Nice tattoo you have there,” his lips turned upward as the words entered the atmosphere. “Is there a meaning behind it?”

 

Mr. Do’s eyes came to meet the playful grin on Baekhyun’s face.

 

Baekhyun realized that it was probably weird of him to comment on the artwork, but it had captured his attention entirely.

 

The raven haired man giggled and Baekhyun could swear he heard a “wouldn’t you like to know”, but his hands redirected themselves back towards the flowering plant, signaling Baekhyun to hurry up and cut them.

 

Small talk was always something that occurred in the cozy room. Some said it was the aura of the place, but others claimed it was just because Baekhyun never knew when to shut up. Things with Mr. Do were different though, as the gap between each line spoken was uncomfortably long, and Mr. Do seemed disinterested in anything other than the bright-eyed six year old. Baekhyun was worried that he had made his customer uncomfortable with his enthusiasm, but was then reassured when he got the occasion nod from the other.

 

After a long pause, Mr. Do spoke.

 

“The meaning behind this stupid flower...”

 

His voice was low, so low that Baekhyun almost wouldn’t have heard him if his attention was anywhere else.

 

“...is good fortune. I know it sounds stupid, but peonies have always been a symbol of good luck for me.”

 

Baekhyun’s usual urge to speak was muted by his urge to listen.

 

“When I was young, my mom had a beautiful garden. She had flowers of every shape, size, and color. Whenever it was cold, she would always tell me that my cheeks were the color of a peony,” he looked into Baekhyun’s eyes, “she called me her little peony.”

 

“Why do you consider it good luck?”

 

Mr. Do smiled at the florist standing next to him.

 

“When I was around 13 or 14, she got really sick. She had some type of lower chest infection — looking back I probably should’ve taken the name into account, but I was a stupid teen and would have rather spent my time playing pc games,” he giggled. “She spent most of her time in the hospital, so she asked me to look after her garden.”

 

“Well, did you?”

 

“At first I didn’t,”

 

Baekhyun’s mind was flooded with questions, many of which would be rude to ask a man he just met, but that didn’t seem to cross is mind in the moment. It was like his morals had flown out the window the second his lips opened.

 

“What did you do instead? Masturbate? I can’t think of something else a teen would do in their free time. At least that’s what I did...” he trailed off.

 

Mr Do. was shocked for a split second, but then he cracked a smile.

 

“Wow — a horny florist. Time to check that off the list of things I thought i’d never see!”

 

The florist’s face flashed into a light pink after realizing what he had asked, but decided to laugh it off in order to not create any awkward tension between the two. He cut the peonies which had been forgotten in the brief period of story telling, and delicately handled them in order to preserve the presentation of the budding flower.

 

“Why didn’t you care for them?” he questioned the other man, eyes on the flowers but ears ready to listen.

 

Mr. Do continued. “I thought it wasn’t worth my precious time. Each time I visited my mom, her condition seemed to grow worse, yet each time she would still ask me about the garden. You’d think that she loved it more than her own two children,” his tone lightened, and his lips curved into one of the most beautiful smiles Baekhyun had ever seen.

 

It was almost sinister how he hadn’t noticed this mans beauty before this moment. He had been in the shop for a little over 45 minutes, and it took every minute for the florist to realize how gracefully his lips moved as he spoke. It took every second for him to realize how his eyes brightened when talking about things he was interested in or knew a lot about. It took every millisecond to realize that he was attracted to this man, and that was why he had been trying to pry so much out of him.

 

“But eventually,” the raven haired man continued, “I did start tending to the flowers. I always gave the peonies the most attention because they looked the most withered. It was like each day I wasn’t loving these plants was another day I wasn’t loving my mother. I know it sounds absolutely ridiculous, but I felt that if I gave these flowers the best care then my mother would receive the best care. After all, they were her pride and joy.”

 

Baekhyun soaked up every word of his story and played it back to himself in his head. He waited for what came next, because nothing he could ever say would ever be as important as the stories Mr. Do had to tell.

 

“You okay? You haven’t said anything in awhile.”

 

Baekhyun quickly interjected.

 

“Yes! I’m perfectly fine. Please, continue,” his eyes wandered back to the tattoo, “What happened to your mom?”

 

“She did get better eventually-” he let out a sigh, “but it took longer than we had hoped for. By the time she was completely better I had lost interest in taking care of the plants. They were still doing alright though, even without my care. It was like a miracle.”

 

Miracles were something that Mr. Do seemed to believe in with everything he had in him. He got the peony as his first tattoo when he was sixteen, and even though his mother disapproved of the tattoo aspect, she was in love with the artwork as much as he was. Eventually, he met a girl that loved it as well, which turned into them having a daughter with a similar fondness for the flower. Peonies would always lead to miracles, and Baekhyun knew that their meeting had to be one as well.

 

The florist made sure to handle the plants carefully, as to preserve the beauty of the three baby pink flowers. He invited the other man over to choose the presentation, which ended up being a small white ribbon. He didn’t want his daughter to think he was “too fancy”.

 

“Minimalism is my thing,” he joked.

 

Baekhyun smiled. “I would’ve never been able to guess from those tattoos of yours. Is that a giraffe playing the drums?”

 

“Ah! that one is an ode to a friend I have. Park Chanyeol. He’s at least 8 feet tall and plays every single instrument in the world. Hell, I think he even plays the kazoo.”

 

The transaction took a little while. Between them talking about anything and everything, along with Baekhyun’s constant staring, it took a little more than they had both anticipated. Baekhyun was surprised by Mr. Do’s sudden playfulness that had only recently been shown. He thought that made him even more attractive, but he wouldn’t be have dared to say it out loud. Mr. Do didn’t initially seem as interested in Baekhyun as much as the latter was in him, so what was said next caught him off guard.

 

“I don’t know if this is unprofessional or not, but is there a chance I can get your number? This is probably really awkward — i’m so sorry!”

 

Baekhyun was shocked, but laughed at the cute outburst and motioned for the man to stick his arm out. He grabbed the nearest sharpie, found a clean spot on the tatted mans body, and wrote his number out.

 

“You might have to get this tattooed. It would be a nice addition to the collection.”

 

Mr Do. grinned. “Nah. Actually — I think it belongs over here.” He pointed over to a clear spot near the peony. “What’s your name? I completely forgot to ask. I think it would make a nice addition, along with your face.”

 

“Hey now,” Baekhyun giggled . “I think just Baekhyun would be enough.”

 

“Baekhyun. Beautiful name for a beautiful face.” Baekhyun blushed. “Please call me Kyungsoo. Mr. Do makes me sound old. Plus, it looks like you’re older than me anyway.”

 

“Is there something wrong with that?”

 

“Absolutely not! As long as you’re not as old as my dad you’re fine.”

 

They talked for a little while longer, but Kyungsoo had to leave eventually. He waved goodbye with the sweetest smile on his face, and Baekhyun just hoped that he would text him some time soon.

 

Although just coming in with a small paper, Mr. Do left with two things: Baekhyun phone number, and his heart, which he didn’t want back. At least, not until he got that tattoo of his number (hopefully not along with his face).

 

He stared at the empty shop, taking in the emptiness while remembering how much laughter filled the room only a second ago. His eyes wandered the room, and as soon as his pupils caught sight of the peonies, he felt a vibration in his pocket.

 

“hey! it’s kyungsoo :)”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this isn’t too terrible! It took me about 8 months to finish just because my motivation to write has been resting at a cozy -10 spot. I sincerely apologize for the fact that they’re so out of character I have no idea what i’m doing.


End file.
